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Wednesday in FCR-1

Today I attended my first "Hang the Plaque" ceremony where members of Mission Control are honored for their contributions to specific missions or expeditions. One of my mentors received the honor today of "Holding the Ladder" while the mission plaque was being hung!

I'm so thrilled to share these little behind the scenes moments at NASA with all of my readers.

I was also fortunate enough to represent my division yesterday at a "Brown Bag" lunch with the Director of Mission Operations, Paul Hill. He had some very interesting things to say about NASA and the direction manned space flight is heading.

But the one thing he said that really stuck with me was that the key to success, the key to attaining the job you want is to simply perform your current job expertly and impress higher-ups with your excellence. I think this is great advice for me since I have often, in the past, tried to push myself to the edge in order to get another opportunity under my belt. I don't think he was implying that we should give up all opportunities, but rather to really focus on the ones that will make us more excellent at our job and directly relate to a future position. So, I don't always need to be stressed out about a bunch of extracurriculars that don't either bring me joy or provide some level of mental advancement related to my future plans.

Whew, what a relief! Kind of. Being a flight controller is still a lot of work!

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Disclaimer

I'm a rocket scientist...I diagnose and treat rocket problems, not medical ones!!! Sometimes I blog about my personal experiences as a person living with Type 1 Diabetes, however, this is not to be taken as medical advice.